BBC 2 viewers living in Whitehaven, Cumbria will lose the channel tomorrow unless they immediately switch to a digital TV signal, as analogue transmissions to the town are being switched off in the morning.
The airwave cull doesn’t stop at just one channel though, because the town and the surrounding area of Copeland also loses …

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grumpy old gits!!

yes I mean you Adrian... and tell me one thing, what TV do you watch???

do you have a 'non-sky' sattelite?? well ok, if you can understand startrek in german, 'lost' in swedish, and 'stargate' in turkish.. and also do not mind the female parts being voiced by a man!!

If you just have SKY sat, then you need to maintain it!!(you know, like that car you love...:-) ) rust, dirt, and other things can degrade the signal you are getting, only noticable on the weaker channels that come from the SAME direction...

At its simplest, all it may need it just a good clean!! next check that connectors are solid, the parts of the dish(LNB, arm, reflector, fixings) are not cracked or dented, and check all the parts are solidly fixed...

the rest of you grumby old men, WAIT until it happens, dont use ancient and unreliable boxes, and contact the BBC about issues... I'm sure they want 'good feedback'!

Who is gonna fix my old/new TV... not to mention my box?

The guy round the corner used to fix my TV when it broke down. He said digital wasd going to force him out of business (which it did, 3 years ago) and the other repair guy down the road closed too. I hear that there are hardly any repair facilties for the 600 foot plasma screens in this country which probably explains why John Lewis offers such monstrosities for sale along with free 5 year insurance. By the way, I think my non working box is irreparable due to it being obsolete.Cheapo boxes simply don't work.

The phono connectors are analogue on consoles and they will no longer appear on the newer TV's. They're HDMI (picture and sound down one wire) due to Hollywood not liking you copying stuff. Is there a SCART socket on a new super duper telly? No. That's analogue too. That's the whole point - analogue is being switched off and will no longer work. I also read that if you faff about with modulators and other bits & bobs the picture will be so bad it won't be worth the effort. Once your analogue stuff packs up that's it - it's gone forever - See that VHS collection you have spent £x000's on? If you replaced it with DVD's you paid for the same stuff twice... Hollywood would like you to buy it again on Blu-ray. That's entertainment :-(

its up to you...

As for freeview signal quality... the real trial will be 14 nov, when ALL the channels switch off, and the signal power can be greatly increased - I guess they have just swiched over one, to make sure anything bad happens to only one channel!! :)

The people I blame for the current state of retail, is the **utter skinflints** in this country!! They refuse to pay a good price for a very high quality piece of kit, and then they expect to play their *total crap quality* downloaded movies on it!!! - this is the main reason a lot of companies only release them in europe, where people understand that you have to pay good money not *just* for good kit, but also to support the industry, so they can continue to do so...

And of course all this strain on the UK industry to produce cheap stuff means that the quality goes down, giving the skinflints that caused it more reason to grumble...

the next effect of reducing prices is the death of the rental industry, and also of the small repair shop - people just buy a new one, instead of getting it repaired.. I am a technician, so I understand the problem with these plasma screens - all the electronics inside is virtually 'failproof' - it is the high-voltage powersupply and screen that usually go, and as these make up 90% of the price, basically 'unrepairable'... LCD uses a much better low voltage, so are much better... Myself, I am hanging onto my CRT, supporting my repairshop when it goes wrong, until at least 2012 when there will most likely be *even* better TV screens out!!

So again, I would say it is the skinflints killing the business... those who just download their tv, and dont even bother that the quality is worse than that got through RF, or even VCR.. yes, it maybe 'sharp', but the colours are washed out, the dark scenes non-existant, the fast scenes a jumpy mess...

On to connectors... If you TV still has only an aerial input, then how *cheap* are you??? - and pensioners have an excuse!

I think analogue connectors WILL appear on newer tvs, due to customer demand... and if you dont demand it, you deserve what you get!!!

I remind you of the launch of SKY HD.. they did not have anything other than HDMI, and the *only* monitor to support it.... that did not work!! :D :D I dont remember the outcome, except that HD boxes DO now have non-digital outputs...

So when you are looking for a new TV, make sure you do your research... Do you know that most 'HD-ready' TVs will only do upto 720 lines?? yes, they do say 1080, but the screen specs say 1024 x 768... you see the problem?

It is only people demanding ways to connect their consoles, and the connectors they want, that will get them... if you are mad about TRUE HD, you will need to PAY!